Straight.com Vancouver | Features | Spinning Immigration

the B.C. Federation of Labour and human-rights groups were scheduled to hold a May 24 news conference to highlight the plight of a Mexican migrant worker, José Marcos Baac. His lawyer, Zool Suleman, claimed that his client lost his job and was told he must go back to Mexico. Suleman told the Straight that many farmworkers, including Baac, have voiced concerns about working conditions with that employer in the Fraser Valley.

“The issue that we wish to raise is what happens to migrant Mexican workers who come here when they have disputes with their employers,” Suleman said, adding that the employer was responsive to many of the workers’ concerns. “There is no proper, impartial, transparent dispute-resolution process.”

Straight.com Vancouver | Features | Spinning Immigration

canadaeast.com - Women are a lifeline for Canada's labour shortage woes

RICK BUCKINGHAM
FROM THE HIP

According to Statistics Canada women dominate the retail, hospital, professional, scientific and technical trades. In April 2006, 39,000 women found jobs, a rate of 2.5 per cent times the prevailing rate for men.

A more interesting statistics is that women over age 45, many of whom have raised their children, are being drawn back to the workplace by an acute talent shortage in the corporate sector. This shortage is only going to get worse as baby boomers pass through the system.

canadaeast.com - TP General Business

Embassy - Newspaper Online.

Embassy - Newspaper Online.: "Immigration Minister Monte Solberg is winning praise from foreign students and education sector officials for his new student work policy, but the timing of the announcement means many international students will miss out on working off campus this summer.
A new immigration policy that will allow foreign students in post-secondary institutions to find off-campus work is part of a wider strategy to increase the pool of educated workers and expand the Canadian economy.

There is hope the student visa program will help fuel a population growth that will energize the economy. Canada is facing a looming labour shortage as baby boomers retire and families have fewer babies.

'We have to make Canada's immigration policy more responsive to markets and to what immigrants themselves are looking for,' says Monte Solberg, the federal Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, in an interview. 'If we are successful in getting many [students] to take up the program, [it] will end up providing a huge benefit to the Canadian economy. We are hopeful they will ultimately become permanent residents and that is of incalculable benefit to us.' "